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Surgeons transplant pig kidney into a patient

nytimes.com

71–80 of 122 posts

Re: Surgeons transplant pig kidney into a patient

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it works, why die? You have a chance.

Why would I care at that point? I'm not living with a pig's heart. That's disgusting. Imagine someone being so afraid of dying they were willing to have a pig's heart transplanted. There's nothing someone like that wouldn't do.

Bahahaha wtf you are so out of touch, I can't even!

But by all means, turn down the kidney, pass it on to me! I'll happily piss on your grave with my shiny new swine-urine

Re: Surgeons transplant pig kidney into a patient

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it works, why die? You have a chance.

Why would I care at that point? I'm not living with a pig's heart. That's disgusting. Imagine someone being so afraid of dying they were willing to have a pig's heart transplanted. There's nothing someone like that wouldn't do.

You realize that 1-3kg of "you" is already bacteria, right?

Re: Surgeons transplant pig kidney into a patient

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The alternative is certain death so not a lot to choose from

Disagree. The "choose life at any quality of life" ideology causes immense suffering. Ideally in the long run, this is a step in the direction of keeping people alive with a higher quality of life, but that's unlikely to be this first person's experience.

Doctors (and society) should not be encouraging this mentality.

But individuals surely have the freedom to think like this and make decisions accordingly.

Re: Surgeons transplant pig kidney into a patient

#75
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t realize you had to take lifelong immunosuppressants with human organs as well. That makes this indistinguishable, provided it keeps working.

I'm curious, when did you think patients had to take immunosuppressants?

Immunosuppressants are very commonly used for various diseases that are caused by overreactions or undesired reactions of your immune system. Glucocorticoids, for example, are very widespread for all sorts of stuff (rashes, asthma, allergies, inflammations, ...). Monoclonal antibodies are also getting popular as a way to treat allergic reactions by means such as "killing" your IgE antibodies (They're basically antibodies that, in this instance, are used against your own body's antibodies).

Re: Surgeons transplant pig kidney into a patient

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many times can you receive a transplant for the same organ? Does scar tissue for at the transplant site?

For renal transplants - not sure if there’s an upper limit, although each subsequent transplant becomes a more difficult match (as antibodies build up) and eventually may have to remove previous transplants. Generally renal transplants go in the right or left groin with native kidneys left in place. If one transplant fails, a transplant to the opposite side may be attempted, or a different location (such as intra-abd…

The old kidneys tend to shrink quite a bit

Re: Surgeons transplant pig kidney into a patient

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The alternative is certain death so not a lot to choose from

Disagree. The "choose life at any quality of life" ideology causes immense suffering. Ideally in the long run, this is a step in the direction of keeping people alive with a higher quality of life, but that's unlikely to be this first person's experience.

Sure, but is a low quality life worse than oblivion? Even if you're not 25 and healthy and wealthy and happy, I think life is still worth living.

Plus, if the suffering experienced by this patient helps cause someone else (or many someones else for centuries to come) to have a higher quality of life, one person's suffering can buy a lot of QALYs.

Alternatively if as my mother tells me, I'm doomed to an eternity of unimaginable physical and psychological torture by supernaturally powerful fallen angelic beings with complete control of my entire sensorium, even a few more minutes of being hooked up to a hospital bed with doctors trying to make things better are preferable to that!

Re: Surgeons transplant pig kidney into a patient

#79
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. The "choose life at any quality of life" ideology causes immense suffering. Ideally in the long run, this is a step in the direction of keeping people alive with a higher quality of life, but that's unlikely to be this first person's experience.

Doctors (and society) should not be encouraging this mentality. But individuals surely have the freedom to think like this and make decisions accordingly.

Don’t many religions encourage the complete opposite mentality? Shouldn’t they be censored also?

Re: Surgeons transplant pig kidney into a patient

#80
post #48
post #43

It's impossible for me to see this as anything but an amazing development. But the sentient-pig SF horror genre pretty much writes itself.

… does it? It’s a kidney, not a brain. Brain transplants from a pig seem like a pretty obviously bad idea.

But you never know until you try.
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